Colossians 1:13

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves…

Not only does our inheritance take us from darkness to light, it also brings us into a pure, holy, righteous kingdom. This is the kingdom that Christ described throughout the Gospel of Matthew. It is a kingdom like no other! It is beyond what we can comprehend, but it is what the redeemed find.

Pray that many from the Thai Issan people will seek and find the kingdom of God.

Northeastern Thai Issan

by EJD

Carrying her books in a satchel, the little girl skipped down the narrow ledge between the flooded paddy fields, completely oblivious to the worry etched in every furrow on her father’s brow. She was returning from the government run school in the village, while her father scanned the flooded expanse of the paddy field that he had inherited from his father. Caught between the unprecedented monsoon flooding and the droughts from yesteryear, he wonders how long he will be able to hold on to his inheritance. He has tilled and toiled on this field since he was a lad. Watching his daughter play in the field, he pondered the painful decision he had to make. Was he going to continue plowing the field or was he going to uproot his family and start working in Central Thailand? He has been told that work is plentiful there, but dignity is sparse. He would have to live as an Issan Thai –the poor, dark-skinned compatriot from the northeast. Was he willing to put his family through the distress of discrimination, or was he going to potentially allow them to endure starvation?
The Issan Thai live in the Northeastern part of Thailand, and they are poorer than the rest of the people in Thailand. Those seeking a better livelihood in the city invariably find themselves doing lower-status jobs like construction work and driving tuk-tuk taxis.